Fantastic news! Our project is now an official affiliate of the Fibershed project, with our very own logo!
If you make a garment that meets the Fibershed requirements as part of this project, then you get to celebrate by using this logo. I just request that you contact me if you do, so I can do a wonderful wrap up. As this project encompasses a broader approach to sustainability, feel free to use the #1year1outfit logo for other discussion or garments. If you missed the #1year1outfit introduction, see it here.
In other news, February is natural dyeing month, I have an interview coming up for you next week but I wanted to start by showing you my first tentative steps into the world of natural dyes!
To make my very first ecodye project I used the approach taught to me by Jane Flower at a workshop held at the end of last year. Jane’s approach is to avoid the use of mordants and to use native plants. She uses mostly silk or wool to produce the most unique garments (ooooh…. aaaaahhh):
In our workshop we died silk scarves using resists. We boiled 2 two pots (one eucalyptus and one peppermint tree), I chose the peppermint as I don’t often wear oranges and grey is more practical for my wardrobe. Here is a little picture story of the class:
Can you spot mine on the drying rack? If not, you are going to have to wait…. mean, aren’t I!
After the course, a friend and I had a go at the bundling technique at home with a pretty mediocre result, but on a recent camping trip in the Jarrah Forrests south of Perth, I had more success and made my first garment : )
I had some thrifted wool with me and tried two different pots, the first of leaf litter:
and the second using some sap encased bark that I found fallen off a tree:
We were camping in celebration of my husbands birthday so I knitted him a scarf right there in the bush. Note that this photo was taken back home with materials for my next dye project at the ready.
Sorry for the phone photos for these two – our camera had a little swim in the river : )
If you follow me on Instagram you might have spotted that I have also be trying out some solar dyeing, so I promise a round of those results some time soon too. This week the Perth gang are headed to meet some Alpaca’s so the project is really moving along!
this is moonlight 
This looks like so much fun. I think though that it is still too cold in the uk for outside dyeing, so I’ve been using my time at the moment mostly for research….and collecting onion skins!
I can understand that! looking forward to seeing what colours everyone else finds.
How marvellous! I’ve loved following all of your adventures on Instagram and can’t wait for the next instalments.
oh, and I’m more than a tad jealous about your alpaca adventure 😉
I am glad it was useful, I felt like there was too much information to share, so cut some of the detail and went for dodgy photos instead. Alpacas are bound to appear on Insta sometime soon 🙂
So exciting! Here in Berlin we will meet at the end of the month to start planning and brainstorming! I am so lucky as one of the women, Jule, dyes her own yarn already with natural dyes and knows what she is doing 😉 I am really looking forward to summer and dying adventures outside. Then I will go on a search for the perfect dusty pink mauve grey and a nice blue!
I am searching for blue too! Looks like I may need to plant a native dye plant to get there. Back up plans are a pink or this rusty red :). I am excited to see what you come up with!